141 



Cataetyx messieri, Gunth. 



On the 27th August, 1903, a large specimen of Cataetyx mes- 

 sieri, Gi'inth., was found, Cape Point, bearing N. 80° E., 32 miles. 

 The depth was 460 fathoms with a bottom of green mud. It 

 was relatively large for a deep sea fish, being about 2 feet in 

 length, and much larger than the type and only specimen hitherto 

 found. The latter, obtained by the " Challenger " in Messier 

 Straits, was 8 inches in length. A conspicuous feature in this fish 

 not seen in the smaller and probably immature " Challenger " 

 specimen was an anal depression covered by a flap, on the inner 

 side of which was situated a papilla, the whole being ap- 

 parently a copulatory organ of some kind. 



A little later, on the 17th September, Cape Point N.E., 40 

 mile (approx.), in 560-700 fathoms, bottom green mud, we were 

 fortunate in procuring another specimen about the same size, 

 but a female. The ovaries were distended with ova, which were 

 readily discharged on applying a little pressure. They were of 

 a warm reddish colour, which at once suggested the peculiar 

 red characteristic of many deep sea animals, and which has been 

 seen several times in the groups of the Alcyonaria, Nudibranchs 

 and Crustacea in deep waters in this same region. The egg 

 (PI. Vni, fig. 46) contained many small oil globules, some of a 

 bright red colour, others more of an amber tint, which was also 

 the colour of a single relatively large oil globule which was 

 present in each egg. In some of them when fresh a small patch 

 of what appeared to be protoplasmic matter was observed along- 

 side of this large globule, and this was more apparent when' the 

 colouring matter in course of time became quite bleached out 

 by the light, but there was no indication of segmentation or 

 embiyos in any of the several hundred eggs examined. The 

 two large ovaries were each about 1 15 mm. in length and 35 mm. 

 in diameter. They were enclosed in a tough capsule fully dis- 

 tended with ova of the same bright colour as those which had 

 been pressed out. The ova ^vere produced from a series of 

 transverse leaf-like expansions hanging from the roof of the 

 cavity, their free margins extending nearly to its floor. They 

 were closely packed in between these expansions and filled the 

 remaining space under them where they were more loosely 

 packed. From a rough calculation, there must have been over 

 30,000 in each ovary. It appeared at first that as the eggs were 

 evidently so well developed and flowed so readily from the fish 

 on pressure, they were the ordinary unfertilised eggs 

 found in most fishes, only that they had the colouring and other 

 characteristics of some demersal eggs. A more careful search, 

 however, amongst the ova revealed eight larvae in a fairly ad- 

 vanced stage of development. They were not very difficult to 

 see, though enveloped in a mass of eggs, as the black pigment 



